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Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Beryl's Brains

I'm not sure of the difference between cleverness and intelligence or if they're one and the same. I'm too lazy to look them up in the dictionary! Beryl did a couple of things last week that were quite clever and/or intelligent:-)

We were walking the dogs in our usual place. There is a small paddock along the way that someone has put a couple of sheep in to chew the grass down. This is very enticing for the likes of Frankie! On our way back the sheep decided to run around and that was enough for Frankie to race off to hurry them up. While the fencing looked pretty good I would imagine Frankie could find a way through if he was determined enough. I was yelling at him to come back but he kept on running along the fenceline so I scrambled down the bank in hot pursuit while Fatima waited with Louie, Bess on leash and Beryl. Fatima went to grab Beryl's collar to stop her following me and Beryl gave her a very haughty, distainful look something like this

as she moved out of Fatima's reach. She was saying that she knew Frankie was in trouble with Mum and she wasn't going to interfere unless she was needed. Fatima said she stayed up on the bank with her ears pricked poised to spring into action if necessary while I went and collected my naughty Frankie (who did come running back to me when he realised he was in deep shit if he didn't!) I thought that was clever of Beryl:-)

On Sunday we were walking again (we managed to get past the sheep without incident this time!) and at the river Fatima was throwing a tennis ball into it for Frankie to fetch while Bess and Cilla clung to him like limpets where ever he went. When he got sick of this he just dropped the ball in the shallows and wandered off taking Bess and Cilla with him. I had shoes and socks on and didn't feel like taking them off to get the ball so I casually asked Beryl to get it for me just waving my arm in the general direction of where it was. She looked at me, looked at the ball and decided, yes, she would do that for me:-) So she made her way down the little, stony bank and paddled out and picked up the tennis ball and meandered back and dropped it at my feet:-) I thought that was clever too:-)

But now we get to her sitting for her supper! For a couple of months now we've been working on Beryl sitting and waiting before eating her tea. She doesn't enjoy sitting unless I happen to be eating something extra yummy and she knows a sit is likely to get her a taste of it. So the routine with sitting for her supper goes something like this ....
Me - Sit Bery
Beryl - won't a bow do? (Beryl bows, she likes bowing!)
Me - no, if you want your tea you have to sit.
Beryl - I'll have to think about that, and she wanders away a few paces and comes back
Beryl - I've thought about it and I think a bow should be adequate, she bows again.
Me - nope, sit please Beryl
Beryl - big sigh, oh OK, if you insist, but I really don't think a Princess should have to do anything just for her tea.

This goes on virtually every night so I thought I would change tactics and get her to down instead of sit, as she prefers to down. So a couple of nights ago I told her to 'down', she looked at me like I was crazy, bowed, then sat!! Then, the next night, after thinking about it overnight, when I told her to sit she straight away went down. OK, I thought, she's decided that she will do a down for her tea and I thought I'd cracked it:-) Tonight I told her to down, she bowed then sat! Is this clever, intelligent or just plain dumb, lol? She's a very subtle character with a mind of her own and she does use it:-)

One photo isn't enough for a blog post so here a couple of action shots of Beryl running after birds

Fully extended

Unextended!

The past couple of weeks have been relatively busy for me and I haven't been able to get around my favourite blogs as often as I'd like or comment as much as I'd like or post on my blog! But I'm still here and usually manage to read most posts. Sometimes real life (work in my case!) interferes with the things you'd much rather be doing. Just thought I'd mention what's happening in case I've been missed;-)

8 comments:

I do envy her being able to run off the lead. Unfortunately I can't be trusted to do that.

I did manage to duck my head out of my collar once (it was leather and had stretched) and chase a cat. Frightened the life out of my folks so now the collar's fastened another hole tighter and checked every walk.

But I do manage to have a good run round the garden at least once a day.